Summary Information
John H. Simpson Diaries
1857-1871
- Simpson, John Hemphill, 1834-1914
Mss 153
0.4 c.f. (1 archives box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Typescript copies of short-entry diaries, 1857, 1862-1863, 1866-1867, and 1870-1871, of John H. Simpson, a Civil War chaplain of South Carolina troops, especially the 6th, 17th, and 23rd regiments. Includes descriptions of the battles of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Gaines Mill, and Malvern Hill; camp life and Simpson's work on behalf of the soldiers; Southern attitudes towards Reconstruction, Radical Republicans, President Johnson, and the 4th of July; daily life, including music and reading, his courtship and marriage, and his 24-year pastorate of the New Lebanon Church, Greenbriar Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Monroe County, West Virginia; and his brother Isaiah's dental practice. Lists of Civil War songs and personal expense records are also present.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00153 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The Reverend John H. Simpson was born August 3, 1834, probably at Chester, in Chester County, north central South Carolina. The family included at least two sisters, Sarah and Mary, and four brothers, Elihu, Isaiah, William, and John. Isaiah practiced dentistry and Elihu, after service with the Confederate forces, apparently farmed, as did the father. In October of 1849, John began to “read Latin” with the Reverend L. McDonald. He later studied for the Presbyterian ministry at college and at Due West, Abbeville County, South Carolina, with Dr. Grier, a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Reverend Simpson served as a chaplain for the Confederacy throughout most of the Civil War, from March 28, 1862 to at least December 1864, when he was at Petersburg, Virginia. Searching the hospitals and battlefields of the South, especially for soldiers of the South Carolina Volunteer Regiments, Reverend Simpson prayed with the sick and wounded, and sat with the dying. He wrote letters for the soldiers or about them, dressed wounds, obtained small food and clothing items for the men and coffins for the dead. He arranged for the bodies of South Carolina soldiers to be transported to their homes and often accompanied them.
On May 8, 1866, Reverend Simpson married Lizzie Moffatt, daughter of South Carolinian D. Moffatt. Two daughters are known to have been born to them, Nannie Law on March 26, 1867, and Sarah B., late in 1869. The first year following his marriage Reverend Simpson preached, for a few weeks or months at a time, around an elongated circuit through Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Early in 1867 he returned to Chester County with his family, where they remained until November of 1867 when he received a call to serve the New Lebanon Church, Greenbrier Synod, near Second Creek, Monroe County, West Virginia. Reverend Simpson spent the next twenty-four years in this Appalachian parish, which was the only Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in West Virginia. The church itself had been established in 1807 and the first building erected in 1819. In 1870, during Reverend Simpson's pastorate, a new building was dedicated.
To supplement his very meager salary, Reverend Simpson taught vocal music and violin in West Virginia as he had in South Carolina, and the family raised vegetables and chickens, and kept bees. His pastorate at New Lebanon ended in 1891. Little is known of Reverend Simpson's life other than for the fourteen-year period covered by his diaries.
Scope and Content Note
This collection of the Reverend John H. Simpson consists of typescript copies of his diaries for 1857, 1862, 1863, 1866, 1867, 1870, and 1871. The present existence of the original diaries is not established, but presumably they were loaned to the McCormick Historical Association in Chicago during the late 1920's to be copied, under the direction of Herbert A. Kellar, director of the Association.
Apparently, diaries were kept by Reverend Simpson for every year from 1857 through 1871, as well as before and after these inclusive dates. The series appears to be open-ended. Reverend Simpson's account of the Civil War years is graphic and varied. There are references to individual soldiers of the 6th, the 17th, and the 23rd Regiments of South Carolina Volunteers and of battles in which these regiments engaged. There is mention of the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862, and of Gaines Mill near the Chickahominy River on the 27th-28th of June 1862, and an attack on Malvern Hill in August 1862. One entry notes that on August 14, 1862, the 6th Regiment SCV was on its way “to reinforce Stonewall,” and there are occasional references to Confederate notables. Reverend Simpson was at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, and in May 1863, with Orr's Regiments of SCV at Chancellorsville.
The diaries also document repercussions in the South of the War and the Reconstruction period; the southerner's attitude toward Radical Republicans, President Andrew Johnson, and the Fourth of July; and the social and intellectual tenor of the reconstructing South. There are occasional references to Isaiah Simpson's practice of dentistry, his “gasometer” and the materials he used to fill teeth, the newspapers and periodicals read by Reverend Simpson, his courtship and marriage, and daily observations. Throughout the diaries there are lists of songs being sung in the South and by the Confederate armies, and an expense account recording Reverend Simpson's personal expenses is appended to each volume.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Herbert A. Kellar, Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1953. Transferred from the McCormick Collection, McCormick Mss AS, February 1971.
Processed by Joanne Hohler, March 5, 1971.
Contents List
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Box/Folder
1/1
Volume
1
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1857
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Box/Folder
1/2
Volume
2
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1862
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Box/Folder
1/3
Volume
3
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1863
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Box/Folder
1/4
Volume
4
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1866
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Box/Folder
1/5
Volume
5
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1867
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Box/Folder
1/6
Volume
6
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1870
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Box/Folder
1/7
Volume
7
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1871
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